ECU taps new chairman of emergency medicine

Delbridge

GREENVILLE, N.C.
(Apr. 7, 2006)
—
Dr. Theodore Delbridge has joined the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University as professor and chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine.

Delbridge, 44, has a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University, a master's degree in clinical chemistry from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., and a medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk. He completed a residency in emergency medicine, a fellowship in emergency medical services and a master's of public health degree at the University of Pittsburgh, where he stayed on as a faculty member.

In Pittsburgh, Delbridge was director of emergency services at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Presbyterian Hospital and associate professor of emergency medicine. He also was associate professor of health policy and management. He directed the nation's leading emergency medical services fellowship program and has written dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and scientific abstracts.

Delbridge's experience in leading a large emergency department will be valuable as he takes the emergency medicine reins at ECU and its teaching hospital, Pitt County Memorial Hospital, where he will be chief of emergency medicine.

"Dr. Delbridge brings the expertise and experience needed to respond to the needs of patients, physicians and students," said Dr. Cynda Johnson, dean of the Brody School of Medicine.

Delbridge also has done significant work in telemedicine and led a communications center that provided continuous emergency medical support for a number of commercial airlines and travel medicine firms. He is currently the secretary/treasurer of the National Association of EMS Physicians and is an editor of Annals of Emergency Medicine.

At ECU, Delbridge takes over one of the oldest academic emergency medicine departments in the country. Previous chairmen have built a program that's respected around the country, Delbridge said.

"An opportunity such as this one comes along rarely," he said. "This is a department that has been cared for meticulously and whose faculty members have made significant contributions to the field of emergency medicine over the years."

Delbridge said the Brody School of Medicine's aims of educating physicians for the region and improving the health status of the people of eastern North Carolina drew him to the medical school. Other selling points were the sophistication of the PCMH emergency department and the vast number and types of patients cared for there.

"It's a great place to practice emergency medicine," Delbridge said.

A native of northern Virginia, Delbridge and his wife, Barb, have three children. Away from work, Delbridge is an avid pilot.